So I’m looking for recommendations on where or how to get Topo maps to add to my GPS? I cant really justify dropping the $99 for each portion of the country... I have a Garmin gps with removable SD card I currently use. Ideas? Thought? Recommendations? Thanks!
have a smartphone? gaia gps - it's a free app and it's damn nice i have a garmin gps but i only rely on it to get my utm coordinates so i can pinpoint my location on a paper map and just use the map and compass from there most of the time.
OnX is my favorite. You can save a map and use it offline with zero connectivity, drop pins, switch from satellite to topo and hybrid, its very accurate.
Only place I know that has free topo maps for old school stand-alone gps follows.. https://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/state/all
@RocketmanDane Dit you try opentopomaps I linked a few posts above? I'm curous to hear how you like them in the USA. In Europe some countries maps are better than others. Ymmv.
As Shane pointed out, SarTopo used in conjunction with Avenza on your phone is the best I have found for getting any topo or satellite map for use while outdoors. Very accurate, you can drop pins or photos at any point, use any datum or grid system, download your tracks and points, setup geofences, and the learning curve is really quick. Both SarTopo and Avenza are free, although we use the paid subscription versions due to using it for SAR (we can save more maps, add custom pin icons, add more geofences, and interchange maps between our pro subscriptions). Avenza works with your phone in airplane mode once the map is downloaded. All you have to do is build your map in SarTopo (100% free) then scan it into Avenza with the generated QR code on the map, or email the PDF to yourself and copy it into Avenza. I hardly ever use Avenza's store where you can buy or download maps since SarTopo does it all for free and I can set up map sectors, range rings, etc. before ever transferring it to Avenza.
Here's an example of what you can do in SarTopo, then transfer this map to your phone and it is 100% georeferenced in Avenza without cell service. So, when you move, it will show you where you are on the map at all times and record your tracks or you can geo record pins, photos, etc then download all the layers later into google earth or other systems. The orange outline to the left was our last day grid search area perimeter on the Lynch search. I cut through the QR code since it's still an active map.
And another one built in SarTopo and transferred to Avenza. These were a couple of adventures we just did in NC.
Long and short answer no. Currently having a problem getting the gps to load any map other then the base map. I can get multiple USGS maps to load but then it turns off the base map.. GARMIN requires me to use a legacy software to load maps correctly.. There is a good reason to have gone to a newer program.. The old one $ucks..
I use a GARMIN Vista HCx and have started using a GARMIN GPSmap 60CXs . https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/310
On my Oregon when I connect it to the pc eith usb canle I cam simply copy the downloaded map to the SD card in the Garmin device. The select it after disconnecting the Garmin from the pc and rebooting it. Isn't that an option on yours?
If you have to have Garmin specific map packages, I bought a 24K package on Amazon used. I didn't wanna drop $100 for an SD card either. I paid $45.